Plenty to dislike — and like — about Cubs' loss

Comeback spoiled by poor defensive decision in 9th

Marlon Byrd hangs his head and walks back to the dugout after grounding out into a double play to end the game. (Jos? M. Osorio, Chicago Tribune)

After explaining how he blew his first save of the season Sunday in the Cubs' 5-4 loss to the Pirates, stand-up closer Carlos Marmol extended an invitation to the curious mob surrounding his locker.

"I want to see you guys back here tomorrow when I strike out the side," Marmol said.

Now that was opening-weekend optimism. Many forlorn Cubs fans left Wrigley Field after this too-familiar flop sounding convinced there would be no tomorrow.

Of course, there will be. But with it comes the unwelcome reminder of how a Cubs team that supposedly had made big strides doing the little things under Mike Quade still has a long way to go.

This was death by 16 cuts. The Pirates produced all five runs on 16 singles. It has been 47 years since a Cubs staff gave up 16 hits and all were singles.

Several of them seemed as if they were strategically placed from players holding pool cues rather than baseball bats — such as Pedro Alvarez's dribbler against Marmol in the ninth with runners on second and third.

If the Cubs were as tight defensively as Quade wants, shortstop Starlin Castro would have held the ball on that play. Instead, Castro made a bad throw that pulled Carlos Pena off the base and allowed the winning run in from third. An experienced shortstop knows the reward of getting Alvarez out wasn't worth the risk of letting Neil Walker score.

Why wasn't the infield pulled in anyway?

"You want to think safety first, but as you get wrapped up in a competitive moment, you're trying to pull it out and make the play," Quade said.

As Quade ponders why the Cubs didn't pull out this winnable game and series, he might also question his decision to give Alvarez a chance to put the ball in play at all. The Cubs led 4-3 with runners on second and third with one out. The book says with first base open you intentionally walk the hitter and hope Marmol induces a double-play grounder that sends everybody home happy.

It's not a book Quade cracked Sunday.

Quade did cite percentages in explaining the move to stick with Reed Johnson in the ninth inning against Pirates right-handed closer Joel Hanrahan.

"Reed's numbers are good against Hanrahan,'' Quade said.

Perhaps, but after Johnson looked overmatched striking out swinging, it was impossible not to wonder why Quade didn't pinch-hit a left-handed hitter such as Blake DeWitt, Saturday's hero, or Kosuke Fukudome. Heck, Quade was the one who publicly second-guessed that decision at a postgame news conference that illustrated how long of a weekend it had been.

"I'm out of breath. You guys talk," Quade said with a smile as he sat down. "We don't have enough time to go through all the stuff. We had chances."

Indeed, the Cubs stood three outs away from winning a game the way GM Jim Hendry designed it during his thrifty shopping spree last winter.

They got seven strong innings from Matt Garza, whose nasty stuff looked like he will be the ace of this staff by Memorial Day. They turned the game over to setup man Kerry Wood with a one-run lead in the eighth. They brought on Marmol to do what he gets paid well to do, but things unraveled after he walked the leadoff hitter. They typically do.

The breakdown let the Pirates leave town thinking they aren't the worst team in the NL Central. As for the Cubs, they still believe because, well, when you lose two out of the first three to the Pirates you have no other choice.

"You look at the end result and we're not pleased," Pena said. "But we have to be careful with the way we evaluate a game like today. We did a lot of good things."

In fairness, Pena makes a valid point and any list begins with Garza. In throwing 80 of 106 pitches for strikes, he provided convincing evidence that his 10.38 ERA in Arizona was a mirage. Whether he was striking out a career-high 12 batters or jumping over the third-base line and taking two gallops on his way to the mound, Garza looked like he will be fun to watch.

Same goes for Castro, the Cubs' most exciting player who went 3-for-4 with two triples in the leadoff spot where he belongs. Alfonso Soriano also hit a clutch homer in the sixth to break a 3-3 tie. And Tyler Colvin made a terrific one-hop throw from right field in the eighth to nail Jason Jaramillo and preserve the lead when catcher Geovany Soto's tag hit Jaramillo in the face.

Yet in the end it was the Cubs who left feeling like they had been punched — right in the gut.